Prince fights for life after he is buried in ski avalanche

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Prince Johan Friso, Princess Mabel and their daughters in Lech last yearAFP

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The Prince was buried in an avalanche while skiingGetty Images

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Prince Friso and Princess Mabel at a concert last May in AmsterdamAFP

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At their wedding in 2004Reuters

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Innsbruck University Hospital, where the Prince is in a critical conditionReuters

David Charter

Last updated at 12:54AM, February 18 2012

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was keeping vigil last night at the hospital
bedside of her son, Prince Johan Friso, whose condition was “stable but life
threatening” after he was buried in an avalanche while skiing in Austria.

The Prince, 43, spent at least 15 minutes trapped beneath the snow before
emergency workers could dig him out, resuscitate him and fly him to
Innsbruck for urgent treatment.

He was skiing with a companion off-piste near the resort of Lech, in the
western Austrian mountains, when the avalanche struck at about noon. No one
else was injured.